From low-cost and no-cost tools to premium solutions, advanced techniques, and even outreach emails, we have covered it all.

1. Broken Link Building – Using Expired Domains

Have you ever thought about finding link building opportunity, using expired domains? Instead of chasing domains all over the web you can grab expired domains with high metrics and see what is linking to them.

This is not as saturated as much as other methods because people usually don’t see it as an opportunity for broken inbound links.

For this chapter, I will use Expiredomains, GoDaddy, Flippa, and FreshDrop.

If you don’t have an account, create one, as it will unlock many other possibilities.

Let’s search for expired or deleted domains with the best possible fit for your needs.

Using the “Car insurance” keyword, I found, with one single click 50,286 potential domains for link building.

After you add your keyword and hit the “search” button, it is essential to select all domains by clicking on the number of backlinks from different domains (DP). After you’re done, take 10-20 domains for a start and continue searching for decent backlinks.

Add all domains in a Google docs sheet for easier sorting.

To show you how to manage all the related domains you found, I will use the first 20 results from my research.

Go to docs.google.com/spreadsheets and log in.

Start a new spreadsheet and add all found and interesting domains with a higher amount of DP.

I’ll take the first one from the list to see if I get anything useful. I will then use Ahrefs (my favorite tool) to explore the websites.

Enter the URL you found in “Site Explorer” and hit the search button.

In a few seconds, I found 485 potential domains for research.

Click on backlinks and Pandora’s box is opened.

Let’s take some of the listed websites and see what we can find. I would recommend keeping with higher DR (Domain Rating).

It is better to find something suitable (quality over quantity) for your website to put your link there.

For this example, I will use the marked website with 55 Domain Rating.

All you need to do is contact the website with a broken link and offer them a replacement with your link.We will teach you how to do outreach (the right way) later.

Let’s see other sources for finding backlinks using expired or deleted domains.

GoDaddy Auctions

For even better performance, you can click on “advanced search” and try to find something even better. This way you are getting more chances for deeper research.

Again, with only a few clicks, you can get a huge amount of domains for further research.

In this case, I’ve got a list of 44,833 potential domains for my link building purposes. A goldmine!

You can even sort them by using Flippa’s additional options.

I won’t go further here because you already know the procedure (using Ahrefs).

FreshDrop domain research

They have a huge database and a lot of useful filters to help you out with finding the best domains.

As you can see, I got 64,795 domains generated and ready for future use.

Domain Marketplace

It is the same with marketplace.domaintools.com. A lot of useful features and filters help you to find the best fit.

I think that you pretty much have an idea of how to use this technique to find expired domains for broken link building purposes.

All you need to do is to go to one or all of the websites mentioned above, add your keyword and start searching. Once that’s done you can make a nice list using Google Docs and start with outreach.

Don’t forget, to get your link replaced; you must have a decent-looking and user-friendly website.The content of your website must be great and useful. Otherwise, you might waste your time.

How to write outreach emails and how to do outreach, in general, will be covered later in this blog post.

2. Wikipedia Broken Link Building Techniques

As we all know, Wikipedia is the largest and the most informative online encyclopedia. It is almost impossible to do any organic search for any terms that don’t contain a Wikipedia link in the top 10 search results.

A great opportunity for you to make your link profile looks much better.

There’s only one problem. Finding broken Wikipedia links is a HUGE pain and time-consuming. But, there’s a solution.

I’m going to show you exactly how to use Wikipedia smartly to gain unlimited links which will boost your traffic.

Wikipedia is very clear and transparent about dead links.

This footnote gives a chance to other editors to make changes before they delete it for good.

Even so, that they have their own page for articles with dead links only!

To go through this module I will take the website from the first page of Google, but you will find a page(s) relevant to your site.

Now, hit the CRTL or CMD (for Mac users) and search for “dead link.”

Your browser will automatically jump into the dead link from the references section.

Now, let’s click on that dead link to see what we can get.

Ok, that page definitely does not exist anymore. That’s your chance to create a new page and edit the Wikipedia dead link.

All you need to do is to go to Wayback machine, enter the broken URL and click on “Browse history.”

Next, you should find the date of the website where Wayback machine snapped a cached live page.

We now have a free article to use, but before we do that, it would be good to check if the article is still indexed.

To check that simply type;site:http://www.labour.ie/press/2010/06/15/labour-proposes-outlawing-vehicle-clocking-in-road

Ok, amazing! You can use this article for your link building purposes.

However, I would strongly suggest editing this article a bit. It’s from 2010, and it’s probably outdated.

Now, all you need to do is to make an account (if you don’t have one) on Wikipedia and start adding your links.

NOTE:Don’t get overwhelmed right away.

Make a few edits first, get some authority and then start editing articles with your link. Don’t test their patience or you will be on the blacklist very quickly.

Find broken links using Wikigrabber

Wikigrabber is a very handy tool to find Wikipedia pages with broken links.

To successfully manage a campaign using Wikigrabber all you need to do is add your keyword in the “enter your keywords” field.

So, let’s stick with our existing example keyword “Car Insurance.”

Hit the search button and start researching the results you’ve got.

Now, you need to reach out to the site owner and let them know about the broken link, offering to replace it with yours.

I’ll explain later in this post how to do that, step by step.

Wikigrabber by default will show you “Missing Citations” first and then “Dead links.”

You can choose dead links accordingly.

From this point, the procedure is the same as with Google search strings. You can go link by link or CRTL or CMD (for Mac users) and search for “dead link.”

3. Deep Broken Link Building – Second Level

You already know how to find broken links from your industry in one of the most authoritative sites on the web.

But what if you could dig deeper for more websites with decent authority?

How? Follow the steps below.

For this purpose, I will use the same URL (https://www.labour.ie/) I found using Google search string and Ahrefs (more about this fantastic tool later in this post).

Add your URL in Ahrefs Site Explorer and click on the orange search button.

You will see that domain has 1.82k referring domains, which is great. The site has a nice link profile and decent history. It is authoritative.

To continue with more in-depth broken link building, you should find broken links on that website.

You should click on “Backlinks” and see which of them are “lost.”

I will take the first one from the top.

After you find “lost” link(s) click on it and see where you will be led.

This is what I got. An excellent contextual post with a broken link, ready for replacement.

Rinse and repeat.

4. Outdated Content Link Creation

I’m going to present you with another great piece of broken link building strategy.

What is it all about? Finding and revamping outdated content on authority websites.

This is a brilliant combination of broken link building and guest posting.

Let’s start with an example. I noticed that people are talking less and less about broken link building strategies lately, even though this is the future of SEO.

That brings me in front of a ton of outdated content.

Type into Google a keyword in your industry and try to find posts in the time range of 1-3 years. Click on “Tools” and then on “Custom range.”

Let’s search posts from 1-3 years old. Any older content than that can be really old and newer than a year means it’s pretty much up to date.

For every industry out there the situation can be slightly different, so I encourage you to play and see what fits the best.

Click on “Go” and start researching.

I found a great website, Quicksprout founded by Neil Patel, with high Page Authority and his infographic about the broken link building case study.

What I noticed is that some of the links are dead and the content has space for improvement.

Especially in one chapter. There is a full explanation of how to use a “brokenlinkindex tool.”

I saw that they do not operate anymore and they have a full page optimized around that topic.

All I need to do is to contact them, saying that they have a broken link and the whole explanation about the software that doesn’t work anymore.

After that, I can offer to replace with fresh content, new software on the market and my link inside. Now, I won’t lie to you…

It’s a tough and time-consuming process, but in the end, it is very powerful.

Another example; Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko, wrote in his post regarding broken link building strategies about PRWeb which doesn’t exist anymore.

Find a replacement website with some content around and send an outreach email.

I think you’ve got the idea (using your keywords) of how to search for the same in your industry. Go one by one and start searching for outdated content or some information that is not accurate anymore. If you find some nice broken links, save it for later.

People like reciprocal offers. If you do something good for them, they will feel obligated to do the same for you.

Other examples to give you an idea for searches;“Book reviews for old editions”“Reviews of products that are no longer sold”“Techniques that don’t work”“Records that have changed hands”“Tools that have changed ““Advice that isn’t relevant anymore”

Next is outreach. I will explain all later in this post.

5. Find Broken Links Directly On Sites From Your Industry

As you have probably already noticed, people are not diligent in updating content. Most of them are write, publish and leave it just like that to collect dust.

It is the same for authority websites.

In this module, we will focus on authority websites from your industry or so-called Linkreators. (Linkreators are people who tend to write and share about the same subject that you do).

Now, just imagine if you can find broken links on their authority sites and offer to replace them with yours.

Before we start searching, let’s install “Check my Links,” a Google Chrome extension to make this process easier.

Click on Add to Chrome.

You will see a small icon on the top of your browser and each time you find an interesting website, you should click on it, and this extension will start searching for dead links.

Now, it’s time to go through the whole process.

You can use each search string one by one and see which will best suit your needs. I will use “keyword” + “additional resources”

Let’s research the marked website.

It has 100+ link building resources and has huge potential for broken links SEO and replacement.

After you find your own research go to the website and start using the Check my Links extension.

VerticalMeasures is a high authority website with high URL and Domain Rating.

An excellent opportunity to gain a nice backlink from an authority site.

All I need to do is to go one by one through each dead link and see what was there.

After that’s done, you need to contact the site owners and propose to replace dead links with your website.

To get links from a high authority website, you must have decent content on your site and something valuable to be accepted.

You can even make a step further and check what was on that page and why that page was accepted.

How to do that?

The Wayback Machine.

I was checking this article, and it looks pretty much OK.

It is outdated a bit which is a great opportunity for an update and re-post to your blog.

After you’re done with that, you can make your outreach and ask for link replacement. Later, we will discuss outreach emails.

For the last stage in this module, we will be finding broken links directly on your Linkreator sites.

To find them, you can use the search strings from above, or you can use a different approach using this;(keyword) blogs to follow best (keyword) posts (year)best (keyword) blogs top (keyword) blogs to follow + (year)

This way you can find a lot of outdated links on high authority sites from your industry (don’t forget to use “Check my Links,” a Google Chrome extension).

As always, I will use Ahrefs, but you can use Screaming Frog SEO, the free version which will also give you nice results. This is my selected search string;(keyword) blogs to follow + (year)

The first step is to add your chosen site, hit the “Start” button and wait. Sometimes it can take up to 10-15 minutes, depend on how big the site is.

After crawling is finished, you will see a list of results, and you want to hit the filter tab and click “client error” or 4xx.

By doing this, you will see links that are broken.

Now, the Screaming Frog tool has a lot packed in, so you will need to slide the panels to make more room to examine the broken links.

Once you do this you have some space, and you can look at the broken link on the page:

This crawl has only shown 2 broken links, but we can see 3 key elements on the page when we investigate them:

The URL, the outbound link, and the anchor text.

To make sure this link is broken I head over the page and check it using the Check My Links chrome extension.

As you can see we have confirmed the broken link.

Screaming Frog offers a lot more than this, and the premium version offers even more tools and variations.

But for broken link building, this 1-2 punch combination of using Screaming Frog and then manually checking the links using Check My Links works really well.

9. Dead Link Checker

Dead Link Checker is a free online tool that allows you to check a whole website or a single page of a site.

With the Dead Link Checker, you can have up to 2000 webpages crawled on a site and then you have to sign up. I think for most people 2000 will be fine.

So, all you do is add the link to the site and fill in a quick captcha form, and away you go.

Once scanned, we get to see the failed ones, or you can request a full report.

As we can see Neil Patel has 18 broken links (hey, who doesn’t want a link from Neil) and if we click on the full report, we can see more detail.

My next job is to go through the links and start to check for opportunities.

When I spot a broken link on the site, it is important that I look at the text. As you can see it says the operator timed out so I advise you to go and manually check the broken link (you should always manually check the links are broken).

The good news about the Dead Link Checker is that it tells you the anchor text, so it is easy to spot.

In this case, the link works, so I can return to my list and again look for opportunities.

10. Domain Hunter Plus

Domain Hunter Plus is another broken link finder, free tool, this time from Netvantage Plus. The difference with this tool is that it is a Chrome Browser extension rather than a website (broken link checker chrome).

Domain Hunter Plus is a little different in that it does two tasks. Yes, it will find the broken links, but it will also tell you if the website that the link goes to is registered.

This is a super cool technique because if the website is dead, you have an even easier chance of getting a link because no one likes linking to dead websites.

To use the plugin/extension is simple enough. Go to the Chrome store and search for the plugin and install.

Next, go to a website and click the Domain Hunter logo in the corner.

From there Domain Hunter Plus does the work and opportunities will appear.

The downside of this tool is that it does not show all the links, only the dead ones.

In practice as an SEO specialist, we need to make the most of our time, and a tool that shows both live and also broken links is going to be better, but hey this baby is free, so it is a minor gripe.

So how would we use this?

Personally, I think the power of the Domain Hunter Plus plugin comes via casual browsing.

Go to Google Sheets and set up a spreadsheet called “Broken Links,” and keep this open during your daily web use.

Whenever you come across a page or article for your niche (or your clients) simply press the Domain Hunter Plus button, and away you go. Once there you can add to your spreadsheet.

Issues With Domain Hunter Plus

We are not going to tell lies, the reviews on the Chrome store are not that kind, and yes we found issues with the extension as well

For example, we wanted to export our results using the big green export button, but this did not work for us.

Also, the extension only worked on about 1 in 3 websites.

So while it is free, it does not always work. It wasn’t a great tool for us to use, however, if you are doing SEO for your own website and do not want to hire a company then this tool might be great for you.

11. Broken Link Checker

The Broken Link Checker is another online tool. The main difference between this and the Dead Link Checker is that there seems to be no limit on the number of web pages you can check.

That being said, I know that they have a “free limit” of 3000 pages per site, but again this is more than enough for most SEO uses.

To start, you simply type in the site link and fill in the captcha.

For this broken links test, I used the awesome SEO blog of Matthew Barby.

You will get a report back fairly quickly (it is not exactly greased lightning, but it is not tortoise speed either).

You will see on the post a range of codes, and if you click on them, the definitions pop up which is handy.

Now I have to say the next trick for the Broken Link Checker tool was pretty darn impressive.

When you find a link, you want to investigate you can click the URL button to go to the URL and the src text to see the source code of the link.

As we can see, this is a case of a blog comment link that is broken so not of any use, but still a nifty trick nonetheless.

It is easy to see how this tool will save you time and effort as it finds the code on a site in seconds and highlights it for you.

12. Xenu Link Crawling Tool

Ok, so the Xenu link sleuth program is old as the internet (or certainly seems that way), and it is included in many tools online.

And we really did want to include it in this list, but when we did some research, the word “malware” came up.

Now as this writer hates the word malware, I didn’t have the guts to download the tool, but as it is covered on other lists, I thought we need to add it and the reason we did not use it. You can never be too safe online!

13. Dr. Link Checker

Dr. Link Checker is another cloud-based free website link checker, that is fast and free to use.

All you need to do is copy and paste your website into the browser and press the start button.

You will be directed to a page whereby the tool starts running through the website.

Once you have done this, you click on the broken link status on the right-hand side, and it will show you all the broken links they have found.

At this point, you need to go and check them manually.

The tool is fast and free (free version is limited, 1000 links per website) but other tools that show you the link “highlighted in the code” are possibly better (in our opinion) because this again saves time.

Any SEO specialist values time as their most important resource and seconds add up to minutes and minutes add up too. You get the picture.

My point is that when you are doing broken link building at scale, the ability to shave seconds off any given task is crucial because it soon adds up!

14. Canned Response Gmail Feature

How to send a broken link?

Canned responses won’t find you any broken links, but it will help you to get links once you find them. The best part is that it is free and it is in Gmail.

What Is A Canned Response?

Well, a canned response is simply a template you can pre-write to save you time and energy writing out emails and also copying and pasting.

And when it comes to link building, this is essential because time = links.

To begin with, head over to Gmail and select the gear icon.

Once you click the gear and then “settings” this will appear.

Next, click the labs option.

Then you need to select the canned responses feature and press enable.

Once you are enabled, save your changes and come back to the inbox. How To Create A Canned Response In Gmail

Now we have the settings turned on, open up the Compose A Message window.

There you will see an arrow pointing down – click it and access the canned response feature.

You will be asked to type a name for which you might “broken links.”

Then type up your response which could be:

______________________________ “Hi,

My name is Marko and I run serpline.com.

I was doing some research for an article when I came across your website (website URL). In particular, it was the article called (add the link). The thing is I noticed that you have a link on the page to XYZ. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link and noticed it was broken (add an optional explainer such as, I checked the link, and that site no longer exists, etc.). As it happens, I have written an article called xyz that I think would be a great link in its place and would be a good addition to your site. Let me know if you would like me to send the article through to you for you to have a look at.

Best regards, Your name” ______________________________

Feel free to edit that for your needs.

Once you have done that, you can either save it and type in the name or if you have already named it, simply click on the name in canned responses and it will ask you if you want to overwrite it (which you do).

How To Send A Canned Response In Gmail With your response template set up, it is easy to get going.

All you need to do is to select compose an email and then the down arrow again and click on canned responses and the name of your response.

And up pops your email.

All you need to do is edit, and you are away.

The canned response is a free way to try and gain some links for your site.

15. Making A List For Outreach

So you need to make a list and check it twice. Your job is going to find out which webmasters are naughty or nice (sorry, I couldn’t resist adding that).

Having done link building for what seems like forever, I can tell you that it ain’t easy.

But why has link building become such a pain in the backside?

Well, here are a few issues: 1. People do not understand why they should even link out 2. The site owner/blogger wants to make money selling links 3. Someone told the blogger they should only ever sell links 4. The blog is part of a private blog network 5. The site owner can’t see the value of your article 6. The site owner can’t be bothered to fix the link

So yeah, trying to gain links by fixing broken ones can really suck.

That being said it does work, but my advice would be that you need to play the long game with these things.

The way I would do outreach is as follows: 1. Use one of the tools mentioned in this list 2. Create a spreadsheet/Google Sheet to collect the data 3. Start your research 4. Find the broken link, add it to your spreadsheet and also try and find the contact information for the site owner at the same time you find the link (because doing it afterward is a pain) 5. Email the site owner 6. Make a note of when you emailed them (write this in your sheet) 7. Email again in 14 days if they haven’t replied 8. Await responses

Remember, this is at scale!

If you want some success with broken link building, you will need to put the hours in and find those links. It is not easy, but the power of a single good link is incredible.

One link can change your business, or your website rankings from page 10 to page 1 and beyond.

But success comes with the outreach and emails you send, which we will cover next.

16. How To Find Someone’s Email

Now we know that one link can benefit a site (which is why SEO is so important) and we know that to get a link from others requires great outreach.

But here is the thing. Great outreach requires you to contact people and to do that you need their emails!

These days there are a few obvious ways to find an email. Firstly, it is often in the contact us section of a website.

That is always your first port of call.

However, if there is no email and simply a contact box (an SEO’s nemesis), what are you going to do?

I personally have 3 options: 1. Find their email 2. Message them on social media 3. Use the contact box

The best tool will always be the old email, and we are going to teach you how (with Ninja stealth) you can find the email you need.

Ninja Outreach is a great tool for doing all your outreach, but it also has a hidden gem, the email finder.

All you do is literally add the first and last name of the person you want to find and then the domain they are linked to and voila, press the button, and away you go.

And yes, finding an email is as simple as that!

The downside is that Ninja Outreach is a paid tool, but if you are desperate for those emails it presents a great way to get them.

If you check out The Art of Email they have this broken link building email template for you:

Subject: Name of Blog ______________________________

Hey Cool Blogger, I was looking for a few resources on momentum trading, and I came across your very informative guide: [Title] I noticed that one of the resources you mentioned on online brokerage comparisons no longer exists. I recently created an extensively researched guide on how to choose the right online brokerage for you: [Link]Considering trade volume, trade frequency, invested amount and other key factors. It might make a good addition to your article. Either way, keep up your insightful articles – Google sure loves those 10 000+ word articles

Anyway, there are a few strategies for outreach that I like to employ.

Strategy 1: The Would You Like To See Technique The idea behind this template is pretty simple, ask for a micro-commitment first. The aim is to say “hey you have an issue with your links” and then say “I have a great solution, would you like to see it?”.

The email might go a little like this:

Subject: Problem with site ______________________________

“Hi (name)

This is a cold email, let’s not pretend otherwise. Cold emails tend to be annoying; I get them a lot too but please don’t close the box and send me to email hell just yet, I promise this will be useful. I was doing some research and came across your article on XYZ.

I loved it, especially the bit about (insert a part that makes it clear you read the article), it was a well-thought-out article that covered the subject, and I learned a lot (you need to make them feel great).

However, I went to click on the link to XYZ and noticed that the link is broken.

In fact, I checked, and the post and entire website no longer exist (optional), another website bit the dust. As it happens, I have already written an article that I would think would be a great fit to replace the broken link.

I think your audience would love it and it supports your article.

Anyway, I know you are super busy so if you would like to check out my article let me know, and I will send it your way.

Either way, keep up the great work.

Signature”______________________________

What has happened here is that we have injected a little bit of personality into the email and that matters.

You can never go wrong; also you are not only contacting them for something, as this outreach email is a bit like a fan mail as well.

Anyway, this is a solid method and has worked for me personally.

Strategy 2: The Straight To The Point This email is not about trying to build a beautiful friendship with the site owner; instead, you want that link, and you are going for it.

Up front, no hidden agendas and straight in the kisser.

Subject: Issues About Website______________________________

“Hi xyz

I love your site, it is full of cool content. I am a fellow blogger as well (make them feel they are a peer). My blog is at XYZ and covers (add your subject). Anyway, I know you are super busy, and I want to get to the point. I was doing some research, and I saw your post about XYZ. However, I noticed that the link to XYZ is broken. As it happens I have a great article that I think will be an even better link.

Here it is:

It would be brilliant if you linked to my article.

If you could let me know that would be superb.

Thanks”______________________________

Three different templates each with a variation. The advice I have is to create your own templates and stand out from the crowd.

Make it look as if the email you wrote took effort.

Conclusion

Phew, are you still with us? If so, well done, you deserve a broken link building medal.

You now have the tools, you now have the knowledge, so go out and crush this and become a broken link building champion.

Let me know, by leaving a comment below, if you have any questions, other broken link building tools or techniques and we will be happy to add them to the list.

Thx mate, this is your gift to whole community, I believe this blog will become one of the best seo blogs along the way!

Indeed, I got another question regard “expired domains” , in this guide, you listed some places to find expired domains like Godaddy auction, Expiredomains.net, etc which we already know, of course plus other famous like Domcop blah blah…

As we all know find expired domains is important for us nowadays, but is there a way, to say, to get all dropped domains in a specific day?!?!

For example, I want to know all dropped domains today, in 24 hours, is there a method, or database?

I personally think there is no way, maybe only ICANN know this lol. For a normal IM like you and me, we can only use:

1: services like Godaddy auction and others 2: scrape to find

In short, I want to know if my thought is right or maybe you have some “secret method or way” to catch “all dropped domains in a day” ?!

I read a lot of articles where writers briefly mentioned the broken link building technique but never went in-depth about it. That’s why your detailed guide to broken link building was absolutely perfect. I never knew there was so much to it and now I know. Thank you for all the recommended tools (I only use Ahrefs), they will come in handy later on.

Hi Marko, I really am impressed by this article posted on BHW, I came here to check it out as well. This is extremely indepth, and I have picked up a lot on how these methods could work for rankings. Appreciate the post and keep it up, I love sharing awesomeness.

For a technical audit, I recommend to look towards SiteAnalyzer – a free program for auditing and technical analysis of the site. At the same time, the set of functions is practically not inferior to paid counterparts

Congratulations for your great post about link building. I am a big fan of the broken link building strategy and have had good success with it. My favorite tool is the “Check my links” Google Chrome extension to check web pages for broken links. If I find a broken link, I email the webmaster and ask him/her if they would like to replace it with my link.

I think the broken link building strategy is a great way to obtain new backlinks because you actually help fellow webmasters fix their websites and you establish a healthy relationship with them in the same time.

With this one strategy, you get more backlinks, your website ranks higher on Google, and you help the Internet be a better place 🙂